Teamwork, the Answer is Teamwork!
by Vexitoire
Summary: What happens if Sakura was never on Team 7, but instead, Hinata? With the Chuunin Exams coming up and Team 7 entering as rookies, more pressure is placed on the trio. CURRENTLY editing chapters
1. Team 7

**Updated: 7/16/2009**

**A/N:** This is going to be my first re-write or re-edit out of many. Things might change, chapters might be merged so… yeaahhh. I changed quite a few things, so it would be a good idea to go back and reread it. (it's a lot longer than it was before) Now, let's get on with it, shall we?

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or anything associated with the franchise.  
**

**Teamwork, the Answer is Teamwork!**

**Chapter 1: Team 7**

It was a pretty peaceful morning in Konoha, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. The people of Konoha were fairly pleased with the nice weather that they were graced with today. Suddenly, a high-pitched scream punctured through the peaceful atmosphere and it's origins could be traced back to the Academy.

"NOOO!" wailed two girls from their seats next to each other in their classroom, saddened at not being placed on the same squad as their beloved Sasuke-kun. As despaired as they were, Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino weren't the only ones sadden by the news that their sensei had just given them.

A certain Uzumaki Naruto sat broodingly in his seat when he had realized that he hadn't been assigned to the same Genin team as his beloved Sakura. But in contrast, young Hyuuga Hinata was delighted to have this opportunity to be on Team 7 with Naruto, the object of her affection. The last member of their three-person squad, the silent and moody Uchiha Sasuke felt mildly irritated regarding his placement on this team; these _squads _would only prove to hold him back. Though, in the back of his mind, he was somewhat grateful to be assigned to the same team as the silent Hyuuga as opposed to another loud and obnoxious fangirl.

"Ha!" Sakura screamed suddenly, turning around and standing up to point at her rival, making the whole class turn around and look at her, well, except for Sasuke and Naruto, who was still moping over the fact that he and Sakura weren't on the same team. The rest of the class was confused, why did Sakura seem happy?

"At least you're not on the same team as Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed while Iruka demanded that Sakura sit down, so he could continuing with announcing the team arrangements. Sakura obeyed with a slight smirk on her face.

"So," started Iruka, "With that over, Team 8! Haruno Sakura!" Sakura hoped she wasn't with someone bad. "Inuzuka Kiba! Aburame Shino!" Sakura groaned. She got the dog boy _and_ the silent freak on her team. _Oh great_.

"Ha!" Ino taunted Sakura from the seat behind her. "You got dog boy on your team, _Forehead-girl_! You have the worst teammates!" Ino ignored Sakura's glare and laughed quietly to herself, but stopped when she heard her name being called.

"Team 10, Yamanaka Ino! Nara Shikamaru! Akimichi Choji!" Ino sighed; okay maybe her team was worse than Sakura's. Ino sighed and prepared herself for what Sakura was going to torment her about.

"Oh," started Sakura with an innocent look on her face, "What was that Ino-pig? What was that about my teammates being bad?" Sakura smiled deviously. Iruka finished calling out all the teams and dismissed everyone for lunch.

"Don't forget to wait in the classroom after lunch for your Jounin senseis to pick you up!" Iruka called out to the Genin as they all left the classroom. Hinata walked out of the classroom quickly, in search of Naruto. She had two bentos in her hands; today she was determined to get Naruto to eat the lunch that she made for him. But as she walked towards the doorway, not looking where she was going, she bumped into somebody's back. Hinata looked up and say a red and white fan on navy blue before looking down.

"G-Gomen," she apologized. "I-I wasn't l-looking where I-I was going U-Uchiha-san, s-sorry."

Sasuke turned around and glared at the shorter girl before he recognized who she was and replied, "If you and I are going to be on the same team, please get out of the habit of stuttering so much and apologizing so much. Sooner or later, it is going to get annoying. Speak up, you aren't going to be notice by Naruto if you are so quiet." With that, Sasuke left a blushing Hinata behind. _How did he know about my crush?_ She asked to herself as she started to look for Naruto again.

The Hyuuga found Naruto sitting under a tree with his eyes closed. She set the bentos next to her on the ground. "N-Naruto-kun," Hinata said as she shook Naruto softly, trying to wake him up. "N-Naruto-kun," she said as her hand moved to shake his shoulder again. Naruto batted her hand away and mumbled something in his sleep.

Hinata tried again but this time Naruto responded, "Sakura-chan, do you want to go out sometime?" Hinata backed away slowly. Though she had known, for quite a while, about the blonde's crush on the pink-haired girl, the lavender-eyed girl couldn't help but feel a tinge of hurt in her heart.

She willed herself not to cry and tried to wake the blonde up again. At least if Naruto didn't like her, she could at least get to eat lunch with him. She tried calling out his name again, and after a minute or so of no response, Naruto's eyes opened. He sat up, wiping the sleep from his eyes before he noticed Hinata.

"Oh hey!" He said to her, smiling brightly. The Hyuuga said a soft 'hello' in response, a light blush on her cheeks. She opened her mouth, planning to ask Naruto if he wanted to eat lunch with her before a certain pink-haired girl walked by that caught Naruto's attention.

"Hey Sakura-chan! Do you want to have lunch with me?" The pink-haired girl stopped in her tracks and turned around to look at Naruto.

"Well, will I be paying again this time?" Though she didn't show it, Hinata could tell that there was an edge of frustration in Sakura's voice as she talked to the idiotic blonde. Sakura's jade eyes noticed Hinata next to Naruto and her eyes softened. Like many other people, she knew about the shy Hyuuga's crush on the dense blonde. "Are you sure you weren't going to eat lunch with Hinata-chan?"

"Oh, Hinata-chan?" Naruto shook his head.

"Ano…" came Hinata's soft voice, "I-It's okay. I, um, n-need to go t-to the Hyuuga c-compound to get something a-anyway." Sakura looked at Hinata again, her eyes asking her, _Are you sure?_

Hinata picked up the bentos from the ground and shoved them into Naruto's hands. "H-Here. You and S-Sakura-chan can eat these. I h-hope you enjoy them." She stood up and ran away, not wanting to see the looks on her friend's faces and trying to keep the tears from falling.

"Wait! Hinata-chan!" Sakura called after the dark-haired girl, but her cries fell upon oblivious ears.

The lavender-eyed girl ran and kept running. She didn't stop until she reached the private training-grounds in the Hyuuga Compounds. She was thankful that her father and sister had stopped training to take a lunch break; she didn't need for them to see her as the pathetic "Hyuuga Weakling" they always thought her to be.

Adrenaline pumping, Hinata fell into the Hyuuga Jyuuken fighting stance. She gathered chakra into her leg and hit the nearest post, blasting it to pieces. She was a whirlwind of emotions. She felt happy for Naruto that Sakura was willing to spend time with him; sadness because, obviously, the blonde had no interest in her; and anger, at herself for not being the type of girl that Naruto was interested in and at Naruto, for always thinking about Sakura first.

Post after wooden post blew up into a rainfall of splinters. Hinata knew that this was the improper technique, but she didn't care. She had all this anger welled up in her and she needed to get rid of it some how. But she had no idea how this would be explained to her father.

A screeching sound filled the air as a bird flew overhead, signaling that lunch was over. Hinata wiped the sweat from her brow. As she headed back to the Academy, one thought coursed through her mind.

_Maybe it's time to get over Naruto…_

-

Sasuke looked around the empty classroom, only Naruto, Hinata, and himself were left in the classroom. Many senseis had come to get their teams earlier and everyone else had gone, except Team 7. Naruto and Sasuke were sitting in the front of the room. Sasuke was observing everyone while Naruto was grumbling and complaining about how their sensei was one hour late. Sasuke turned his head around and saw Hinata sitting in the back corner of the room, looking out of the window with a blank expression on her face.

Sasuke was confused. How come the Hyuuga wasn't fawning over Naruto right now? Suddenly, Naruto stood up and walked over to the chalkboard in the front of the room. His picked up an eraser and walked over to the door. He opened the door slightly and placed the eraser at the top of the door. "What are you doing?" Sasuke asked Naruto with a cold tone to his voice.

"When Sensei opens the door, the eraser will fall down on his head! He deserves it for being late!" Naruto exclaimed, with a triumphant look on his face.

"Naruto," Hinata said, her voice was steady and unwavering. It was a stark contrast to her normally shy persona, "That wouldn't be a very good idea." Sasuke eyed the Hyuuga; this sudden change was shocking. Naruto just ignored her. _Last time, I remembered her talking to Naruto very nicely and calling him "Naruto-kun"? Did something happen between the two of them?_ Suddenly, the door opened and in looked a man with silver hair and a mask covering his face with his forehead protector covering his left eye.

He then turned around to look at the group. "My first impression of you guys is, I hate you." Everyone face-faulted at his statement. "Come'on let's get going." Everyone stood up and followed him out of the Academy.

-

"Okay, let's begin with some introductions", the Jounin told his student. The Jounin was sitting on the railing and the students were situated on the steps. He looked from one face to another. He really did have an interesting group of genin this year. But it wouldn't be long until he would be able to see if they would really be _the_ team.

"What should we say?" Naruto asked.

"How about… your likes, dislike, dreams for the future, hobbies, ect. You know, the standard stuff."

"Hey, hey, why don't you introduce yourself to us first?" Naruto said right back.

"You need an example? Alright then." The Jounin pointed to himself, "Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I don't want to tell you guys about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future? Ehh…Well, I have lots of hobbies…"

Naruto looked at the other two people on his team, "So we only learned his name?" Both Sasuke, but the girl of their team gave Naruto a side-ways glance and nothing more.

Kakashi said, "Now it's your turn."

Naruto got excited and grabbed his forehead protector and start to play with while it was still on his forehead, like he had done earlier that day, "Me, me, I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like cup ramen! What I like even more is the ramen from the Ichiraku that Iruka-sensei buys me. What I dislike is waiting the three minutes for the cup ramen to cook. My hobby is eating tons of cup ramen! My dream for the future is… To surpass the Hokage! And then have all the people of this village to acknowledge my existence

Kakashi moved his hand and pointed to Hinata and said, "Next."

Hinata started talking with a somewhat confident voice, but there was still a stutter, "I-I'm Hyuuga Hinata a-and I like to make m-medicine and to l-look at the scenery. M-my h-hobbies are m-making medicine and gardening. I dislike." She mumbles were the rest of the team could not hear her. During that time Naruto tried to get closer to her to hear. She than looked up and said in a strong confident voice without stuttering, "My dream is to get my Clan to notice me."

Kakashi said mostly to himself, "Hmmmm." Than he said, "And the last one."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike a lot of things, but I don't really like anything." Sasuke face change to a more serious face and said, "And… I don't want to use the word "dream," but I have an ambition is to the resurrection of my clan, and… to kill a certain man."

Kakashi than said to everyone else, "Okay, you guys are all interesting. Tomorrow, we will begin training. I advise you to not eat breakfast, or you'll regret it. Go to Training Grounds around dawn-ish, I guess. Dismissed."

-

Both the Uchiha and the Hyuuga had arrived bright and earlier to the Training Grounds like their sensei had instructed them to do so. A comfortable silence floated around them as they alternated from sitting on the ground to standing up, looking out for their third teammate and their sensei.

It was an hour later when Naruto had arrived. It could be noted from his half-dazed expression that he wasn't quite awake yet. He mumbled a response to his teammates before falling to the ground. He curled up, using his hands as a makeshift pillow. Hinata looked at him, a small smile curled at her lips. Though she was trying to get over her crush for the blonde, she couldn't help but find him adorable at times.

The smile didn't go unnoticed by the Uchiha, who felt a very slight pang of jealousy.

-

"Yo!" said Kakashi, suddenly appearing on one of the three tree stumps a good three hours later. "Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the road of life." His sudden appearance had woken up Naruto, who jolted up. All three of the genin looked at Kakashi like he was crazy, but didn't say anything.

Kakashi brought out 2 bells than said; "Your task for today is to take these 2 bells from me before noon." He emphasized it by making the bells ring. "Those who cannot get a bell by noon get no lunch!" They now understood why Kakashi told them not to eat breakfast. Sasuke scowled to himself. In those past hours of waiting, he had contemplated sneaking away to go grab something to eat, but decided against it. He was not regretting that decision.

"Wait a minute! Why are there only 2 bells?" Naruto asked, eyes wide.

Kakashi smile or at least they thought because his eye made a crescent shape and said, "Because there are 2, so at least one of you will be sent back to the Academy. It might be just one, but it could be all 3. You can use anything you have against me. But, you won't be able to get these bells unless you come at me with a killing intent."

"But you'll be in d-danger, Sensei!" Hinata said alarmed, she didn't want to hurt their sensei on their first day of training.

"Yeah, you couldn't even dodge a blackboard eraser!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning.

"In the real world, those with the least talent often bark the loudest. Well, Mr. Baka." Kakashi said as everyone noticed that Naruto was getting angry. Kakashi continued, "And start when I say…" the blonde fumed and grabbed a kunai from his pouch. He went after Kakashi with it in his hand, surprising both Hinata and Sasuke by the recklessness of his actions.

Suddenly, Kakashi appeared behind Naruto with the genin's hand that held the kunai twisted behind his head. The jounin moved Naruto free arm behind his other arm, making it that when Naruto struggled, the kunai would hurt him. "Hold your horses, I haven't said "start" yet."

Hinata and Sasuke had jumped back when Kakashi had suddenly appeared there. They just stared at the situation that was unfolding in front of them. Kakashi smiled and said, "Finally seems like I'll be able to like you guys, seeing how you can come at me with the intent to kill. Okay, ready… start!" At his signal, all three genin jumped in different directions, hiding themselves in the trees.

And so Team 7's "training" with their new sensei began.

**End of Chapter 1**

**A/N: **The re-written version of Chapter 2 should be up sometime soon!

**Vexitoire**


	2. The Test

**Updated: 11/28/2009**

A/N: Just a quick edit. Once I hit well… this chapter, I'm probably going to delete (rather "temporarily remove") the rest of the chapters, because chapter 3 is a merging together of chapters 3 and 4.

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

**Teamwork, the Answer is Teamwork!**

**Chapter 2: The Test**

About a good hour had passed since Kakashi initiated the little test for his new genin team. The Hyuuga Heiress signed from her position hidden in a tree somewhere above their sensei. Hinata had been thinking about this "test" that they were given. It seemed really odd.

Wasn't the point of a 3-men squad was to learn together and develop some sort of teamwork? They why were there only two bells? Suddenly the gears in the white-eyed kunoichi's mind clicked. Had there been an unlit light blub floating over her head, it would've been shining bright enough to act as a lighthouse.

_Of course! _Kakashi only had two bells to try to pit the new genin against each other! Given their current situation, it would be best for all three of them to cooperate together. Hinata's mind reeled back to the incident when Naruto had impulsively (and stupidly) attacked Kakashi by himself and Kakashi had been able to redirect Naruto's attack back at him all in under a minute. Maybe if they all attack Kakashi at once, then they would be able to get the bells. Two bells would make it harder for them to pass. It all made sense now.

Hinata's white eyes shifted from side to side. Hopefully her teammates had been able to come to the same conclusion that she had. Best to find them and tell the two incase they hadn't. But… her eyes flickered to the forest ground; Naruto had gone out and attacked Kakashi again, and by the looks of it, he wasn't doing too well.

The Hyuuga pursed her lips in thought. Best to find Sasuke first, who was, no doubt, still hiding in the trees. The midnight blue-haired girl brought her hands up into a quick hand sign, activating her Byakugan before jumping off to find the moody Uchiha of their team.

**-**

Uchiha Sasuke sat stealthily in the branches of a nearby tree, observing the fight going one between his blonde teammate and his sensei, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack. The slight rustle of leaves behind him caught his attention and Sasuke pulled out a kunai before turning around.

"U-Uchiha-san, it's me." Hinata said quietly. He cautiously put his kunai away while glaring at the Hyuuga in front of him.

"What do you want?" he whispered harshly. Hinata looked around for a moment, checking for any unwanted listeners then responded.

"T-Teamwork," Hinata started, her eyes still not meeting his as if she were afraid to tell him her idea, "the whole p-point of this 'test' is t-teamwork, and they want us to w-work together." As she continued on her voice steadily became stronger. Sasuke regarded her with a confused look, was this girl crazy? The Hyuuga looked back at the dark-haired shinobi before continuing. "D-Don't you get it? That's the whole r-reason why th-there are only _two_ b-bells!" Suddenly they heard a scream. Both ninja whipped their head to the direction that the scream came from.

Hinata's hands came together in a hand sign as she whispered, "_Byakugan!_" Sasuke stared on as the girl did something that was obviously a jutsu, but he didn't know which one. Veins raised around her eyes as her vision became sharper. "It's N-Naruto." She said, "He f-fell into a trap." She then let go of her hand sign as the charka stopped following into her eyes and her vision returned to its normal state. "So," she started, "are w-we going to work to-together?"

Sasuke thought for a moment. It really wasn't a really bad idea, and it could work. He responded with a gruff, "fine." His female teammate smiled at him as she started to discuss the plan that she had thought up. The Uchiha prodigy nodded every once in a while, agreeing with what she said. They then left from their location and each heading off in a different direction. Sasuke jumped out into the open, revealing to Kakashi his location. His silver-haired sensei smiled through his mask.

"So that's where you were." Kakashi smirked from behind his mask as his dark-haired pupil came towards him. Sasuke's hand reached for his shuriken pouch and threw three of them at Kakashi. Said silver-haired jounin jumped out of the way with ease. The Uchiha then launched a barrage of shuriken and kunai at the leaf shinobi. Kakashi deflected them all with a kunai as Sasuke's hands flew through some hand seals.

_Genin can't do fire jutsu! They don't have enough chakra!_ Kakashi thought in alarm and a bit of awe.

"Katon: Gokakyuu no Jutsu!" Sasuke annouced upon the completion of the final hand seal. His thumb and index finger of one hand formed a circle in front of his mouth as red and orange flames burst forth and flew straight towards his sensei. As the jutsu ended, the Uchiha noticed that Kakashi had disappeared. He turned around and there was their sensei, a couple meters away from him.

Sasuke ran towards him and aimed a kick at Kakashi's head, but the silver-haired jounin was too quick for the prodigy and grabbed his ankle, blocking the kick. There was another punch, another kick, but Kakashi blocked them all. Before Sasuke could land another hit, Kakashi's grip on the Uchiha prodigy's ankle loosened and both shinobi fell to the floor. Sasuke looked up and saw Hinata in a stance unknown to him with her Byakugan activated.

"Thath waz a dirty trick." said Kakashi from his position on the ground. Sasuke looked down at the fallen ninja and was confused. He refocused his gaze on his female teammate.

"What did you do to him?" he asked.

"Oh, he sh-shouldn't be able to m-move for a while since I cl-closed the tenketsu on his neck." Sasuke was amazed, no, he was beyond amazed; the Uchiha was stupefied. Before he could stop himself, questions started pouring out of his mouth.

"How'd you do that? Where is Naruto? What is the Byakugan? What did you mean-" Sasuke clasped his hand on his mouth to stop himself from going on. Hinata giggled as a light pink tainted the avenger's cheeks.

"Well, I can see t-tenketsu with my B-Byakugan; Naruto is somewhere, well I don't know w-where he is; the B-Byakugan is a ke-kekkei genkai of the Hyuuga cl-clan, and I believe that answers all your qu-questions." Kakashi grunted as the pale-eyed konouchi helped him sit up. He then looked on with a defeated look as Hinata untied the bells from her sensei and handed one to the Sasuke.

"I guess you win." Kakashi said, with defeat lining his voice. "Wow, this is the first time I've ever passed a Genin team. Speaking of which…where is Naruto?" As if right on cue, Naruto came screaming out of the forest yelling, "MY RAMEN'S ON FIRE! MY RAMEN'S ON FIRE!" Hinata looked at the blonde, worry evident in her eyes while Sasuke's right eye developed an abnormal twitch at the antics of the Hokage-wannabe. "Oh yeah," the jounin piped up, "I had hit him with a genjutsu earlier…"

Hinata sighed and walked over to the blonde to release him from the genjustu. When Naruto returned to normal he smiled at her and said, "Hiya Hinata-chan!" His female teammate returned his smile and proceeded to recount all that had happened whilst he had been under Kakashi's genjutsu.

Sasuke looked at his two teammates. Hadn't Hinata been mad at the blonde earlier that day or something, if she was, then she defiantly wasn't now. "We passed!" Naruto cheered. "Come'on! I'll treat to ramen!" His two teammates followed him as the trio left the clearing, aiming to get some noodle substance. Kakashi, without the dark-haired genin to support his back, fell backwards onto the ground; lying there, unmoving.

"Help!" he pleaded. "Come back here!"

**End of Chapter 2**

This edit wasn't really long.. just something quickly done… and is/was the hardest edit to do… Gahhhh. Finally found time to finish this edit. Now to go play with copics :3

I'm about halfway through editing the next chapter; and I'm still working on the new chapter.

**Vexitoire**


	3. A Mission to the Mist

**Updated: 12/20/2009 **

**A/N: **This edit was a bit delayed, because I was working on the next chapter of _Remembering to Forget_. And because of dreaded exams…

Please do go and vote in the poll on my profile; it'll make me a happy person. (:

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**Teamwork, the Answer is Teamwork!**

**Chapter 3: A Mission to the Mist**

Hinata sighed as she pulled out weed after weed. This was only Team 7's fifth mission and the Hyuuga was getting tired of D-ranked missions. So far they had three of the same mission, to catch a cat…A CAT! On the first mission, they had captured to cat with ease. Well… the second time? Not so easy. After chasing the cat for a little over three hours, Naruto finally found the cat and ambushed it. This of course, did not make the feline very happy. The animal clawed at Naruto's face the entire time that it was in his possession. When they returned the cat back to its owner… they were happy to be rid of the cat.

Their happiness was short-lived. It was in the morning, during their training, that Kakashi had informed the Team that Mika-chan, had once again escaped and they were to find it immediately. The group groaned as they all set out in search for the lost cat. After three hours, the group lay on the ground, exhausted. They were training before this mission and used up the rest of their energy chasing the crazed cat. Kakashi was long gone, claiming to have to go 'do something for Hokage-sama' instead of helping them. It was obvious that he ditched them to do something else that was better worth his time. Suddenly, Naruto stood up.

"Baka, where are you going?" Sasuke hissed. Naruto pointed in a random direction and responded that he was going to look there and was going to be back in few minutes. Hinata nodded and stood under a lush green tree in the vicinity and waited for her teammate's return and Sasuke followed Hinata's example. Another half hour pasted and both the Hyuuga and the Uchiha were curious as to where to Hokage-wannabe had disappeared to. Hinata activated her Byakugan and ran off to find Naruto, with Sasuke close behind her.

As they approached Naruto's location, they heard a high-pitched giggle followed by a bark. Hinata deactivated her Byakugan and came to an abrupt halt, making Sasuke almost hit her. There was Naruto, at his favorite ramen joint, eating said noodles. Sitting next to him was a pink-haired girl with her teammates. The Uchiha followed her gaze, and saw Naruto with Sakura. He had assumed that scene was what Hinata was looking at, when really her eyes had glazed over from the two and were looking at Sakura's teammates.

After the exchange between Naruto, Hinata, and Sakura the day they had gotten their team assignments, the female Hyuuga would often see the blonde ninja of her team with Sakura. Though her heart was heavy with sadness, she couldn't bring herself to be mad at the pink-haired kunoichi, and after a while, she found her crush begin to fade, but not entirely yet. With all the time that Naruto spent Sakura, Hinata had gotten to know the two shinobi on Sakura's team, and she had been very thankful for this opportunity.

Deep down inside, Hinata was happy that her teammate was able to spend time with his own crush, but she highly doubted that Sakura was over Sasuke. That feat seemed to be an impossible one.

The silent kunoichi walked up to the white puppy that was barking at her, "Hello, Akamaru-kun." Hinata smiled and then proceeded to scratch the puppy behind his ear, earning a whine of approval. Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino walked towards the Hyuuga as she looked up to smile at them. Sasuke watched from afar, the exchange between the Hyuuga, Inuzuka, and Aburame. For reasons unknown to him, he felt jealousy boil in him as Kiba ruffled Hinata's hair playfully and hugged her. What ticked Sasuke off the most was that Hinata even _hugged_ the Inuzuka back.

Sasuke had to fight hard to resist the urge to pull the Inuzuka of his teammate. The Uchiha stopped in the middle of his thoughts. _What did I just think?_ Sasuke thought as he backtracked to his previous thoughts. Sasuke was horrified; did he actually just feel _that_ emotion? Jealousy… Yes he did. It was a foreign feeling one that he hadn't felt since… well since… _he_ was still around, and before _he_ had gone around and killed everybody…

Sasuke unconscientiously clenched his fists in anger. Hinata looked around for her teammates and saw Sasuke in anger, She stood up and walked over to him, a look of worry lined her pale pear eyes. "Uchiha-san…" she started hesitantly and trying to find the best way to put the words together. "Are you okay?" the kind Hyuuga asked as her arm reached out to touch his shoulder. As her hand came in contact with his shoulder, he jerked away.

Hinata was taken aback at his reaction but shrugged it off and walked away to talk to her friends, Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino, about their latest missions. Sasuke turned around and was face-to-face with no other than Haruno Sakura! "Hi! Sasuke-kun!" she exclaimed a bit too loudly. "Come to see me?" The raven-haired shinobi had a pained look on his face as Sakura's loud outburst rang in his head.

Sasuke grunted a "no" before walking in the direction of his apartment, desperate to get away from the loud girl and the quiet one that was confusing him constantly.

-

Sasuke was alone in his empty apartment, eating a rice ball and reading a scroll on taijustsu. It was dark outside since the sun was already long gone and the lamp by his bed was lit and brightened to room a bit. His gripped on the scroll tightened when he couldn't get his mind to focus. He set the rice ball down on the nightstand next to his bed. He then closed the scroll and set it next to the rice ball. Sasuke sat down on his bed and closed his eyes, thinking about the one person that seemed to be plaguing his mind for the last hour and a half.

She was just so _different_ than the other girls. She never followed him around (though it seemed that he followed her around most of the time). She was quiet. And what scared Sasuke the most was the fact that every time some other male approached her, he would start feeling jealous.

This was all so new to him and he didn't know what it was. His mind drifted back to the Hyuuga. The shinobi thought that she was quite beautiful, her hair a dark navy blue, and her eyes a pale white, with a lavender hue, almost like a pearl. He groaned, what was happening to him? His eyes shot open, _Could it be…no it couldn't…_ But then again, this girl resembled someone from his very distant past…

"Hey! Sasuke-teme!" a loud voice yelled, followed by the slam of a door. Sasuke jumped up from his place on the bed to see Naruto, Hinata, and Kakashi all standing in his apartment.

"What the hell are you three doing in my apartment?" Sasuke hissed as he glared at Naruto and Kakashi, but he couldn't bring himself to look at Hinata like that. The blonde grinned while their sensei just smirked under his blue mask. Sasuke's glare intensified.

"We are here because you have another mission." Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Another mission, at this time of **night**? Was he crazy? "You must be wondering why you have a mission at about eleven at night…" Sasuke scoffed. "Well you can thank your teammate for that. You see, after we, as in you weren't there, reported the somewhat "unsuccessful" mission to Hokage-sama, Naruto here demanded for a C-ranked mission. After long hour complaining and whining, Hokage-sama let us have a C-ranked mission, one that was to begin at midnight. Then we went out to eat dinner then we packed out stuff and here we are now!"

"WHAT!" Sasuke screamed. "YOU DIDN'T TELL ME ABOUT THE MISSION UNTIL NOW?" The trio nodded their heads as Sasuke fumed. Sasuke walked over to a drawer and packed some supplies before following them out of his apartment. "So…" Sasuke hissed, "you didn't exactly tell me what this mission was…"

"Oh yeah!" said Naruto, "We have to escort this bridge-building guy, Tazuna, to some town in Wave country…" They reached the streets and started walking leisurely over to the hotel at which they were going to meet up with Tazuna. As they walked, there was a long silence between the quartet, even Naruto was quiet for once, maybe he was just tired…

…

…

"So," Kakashi suddenly said, "peanut butter…"

…

…

"Tastes like peanuts, not quite butter, discuss…" Kakashi said, not eliciting any response from the three…

…

…

"SEX!" Kakashi screamed, making all three genin jump back from his outburst. Hinata and Sasuke blushed madly while Naruto only laughed. The Uchiha walked up to the blonde shinobi and whacked him upside the head.

"What are you laughing about, baka? That wasn't funny…" Sasuke hissed, the blush was still on his face. Naruto only laughed harder.

"What did you mean by "that wasn't funny"? It was hilarious! Kakashi-sensei screamed 'SIX' and you all jumped back! It was so funny!" Kakashi sweat-dropped… This wasn't the reaction that he was looking for. Hinata appeared behind Naruto and whispered something softly into the shinobi's ear. Sasuke felt the anger build up in his at the how close the blond shinobi was to the pale-eyed kunoichi.

A bright shade of red appeared on Naruto's cheeks as what Kakashi had said during his little outburst dawned on him. "I-I…" he stuttered, unable to get the words out, because of his embarrassment. Sasuke smirked.

"We're here!" Kakashi announced. The three genin looked at the hotel, it wasn't very shabby, but nor was it fancy, it was mediocre. Leaning on the side of the door was a fairly old-looking man and he had a sake bottle in his hand.

"This is the squad of shinobi that's escorting me? They don't look all that special…" he said in a gruff voice. Naruto fumed and ran towards their employer, planning to nail a few good punches, before a gloved-hand grabbed his collar and pulled him back. Naruto turned around to see the some-what smiling face of his sensei. "Yeah," the man said, "like I said, not all that special."

"Calm down, Naruto," warned Kakashi, "Our mission is to protect him, and not get him killed. Wouldn't it be worse if he was killed by a member of the squad that was assigned to protect him?" at this, Sasuke chuckled quietly to himself, while Naruto fumed silently with the Hyuuga giggling behind him.

-

Okay... Team 7 got off a rocky start on their biggest, most important mission, but it wasn't like it was going to get them into any _serious_ trouble? Emphasis on "serious". Team 7 had just finished off an assassin duo, well, Sasuke and Hinata did the "taking care of" the assassination duo while Kakashi momentarily disappeared or "died" and Naruto had stood there, well, standing there.

Hinata had noticed the odd puddle, having her Byakugan activated as they were walking. She had noticed a weird pool of water that was emitting chakra, a lot at that, and it hadn't rained in that area for about, oh, three days. Hinata had thrown a kunai at the water and the two assassins appeared. Hinata quickly got into her Jyuuken stance while Sasuke whipped out a few kunai. The assassins traveled fast and immediately "killed" Kakashi.

Sasuke acted fast and aimed a shuriken on the chain connecting the killers, then a kunai, locking them in place. He rushed forward and grabbed the chain (bad move). When Hinata saw them stop moving, when went in for the "kill" she preformed the Hakke Rokujūyon Shō (Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms), effectively closing off all their tenketsu and rendering them immobile.

Then their sensei appeared, revealing to the group that he had not died, but only appeared to, in order to test their ability. Naruto then started screaming loudly at their sensei, but everyone ignored him. Hinata suddenly noticed that Naruto's hand had sustained an abnormally large cut.

"Poison." She said suddenly, causing many heads to turn her way. "Naruto, you have a cut on your hand from the assassins. They had poison on their weapon and you have it on you. You too, Uchiha-san." Sasuke looked at his right hand and noticed the small cuts that he had received earlier from grabbing the chain. Sasuke took a kunai out of his holster and opened the cut even more, letting blood and poison drip out.

"There," he said emotionlessly. Hinata gave him a look of disapproval before she hurried to his side and grabbed his hand to look at his hand. Sasuke blushed at the close contact, but turned away so she wouldn't be able to see his blush. Hinata did a few hand seals before her hand emitted a pale green light. The pale-eyed kunoichi directed the medical jutsu to Sasuke's cut and it closed up, the only evidence that was ever a cut was a small line of blood that Hinata wiped off after canceling the jutsu.

Naruto, out of foolishness, took out his own kunai and made the gash that was already pretty big, double its original sized, letting blood pour out, similar to what Sasuke had done. The Hyuuga rushed towards Naruto's side and preformed her jutsu again. After she was done, she hit Naruto on the head, telling him that what he did was fairly stupid. His cut had been twice the size of Sasuke's before he had foolishly made the wound larger.

Kakashi laughed silently under his mask as he saw what happened. Sasuke had cut his wound only enough to let the poison drip out. Although what the team's sensei hadn't expected was that the Hyuuga Heiress could perform medical jutsus. Not to mention Sasuke's blush that Kakashi had seen. And then Naruto, wanting to feel attention, too, cut his wound open way too much and Hinata had healed him too.

Kakashi had to admit that this team was a lot better than he had expected. Sasuke and Hinata seemed to work very well together, but Naruto was like third wheel…

**-**

It was not much longer before the escorted and the escorts were on the road again. "Okay," Kakashi started, "Tazuna-san, why were there assassins sent after you? This is only a C-ranked mission; there should not be assassins of any sort."

"W-Well," the bridge-builder started out hesitating, obviously hiding something, "You see, my town is poor, and I need an escort to the village because there are men that are after me. The Land of Waves has been taken over by a shipping magnate called Gato, and the only way to revitalize the economy is by building a bridge to the mainland that can bypass Gato's shipping monopoly, and get our town money and other needs. However, Gato does not want this to happen, and uses shinobi gangs to get what he wants. So he's sent men to kill me and, as I said before, we are poor and I was only able to afford a C-ranked mission."

Kakashi sighed, this was no mission for genin; it was more of a jounin-level or even an ANBU-level mission. So that meant that they had to be on full-alert for everything. They were doing a pretty good job... well Naruto was. He was attacking at everything that moved, and was now comforting a rabbit that he had thrown a kunai at. The silver-haired jounin sighed, they had started this mission and they were going to finish it even if it was going to get them killed…

"Get down!" their sensei suddenly yelled. His team and Tazuna fell to ground just as a giant sword whizzed over their heads, missing by a good five inches, before lodging itself in a nearby tree.

"Well if it isn't Hatake Kakashi, the Sharingan Ninja." At this sentence, Sasuke visably tensed and his eyes widened in disbelief and shock. _Sharingan? That is impossible… __**He**__ couldn't have missed one…_ The voice came from someone, well hidden in the trees, obscuring him from their view.

"_Byakugan_!" Sasuke heard Hinata whisper quietly as veins appeared around her eyes. The Hyuuga's eyes scanned the premise before she spotted a figure in the tree just ahead of them. Her eyes widened as she recognized who it was.

"Momochi Zabuza…" The voice chuckled in response.

A tall figure appeared before them. He had bandages covering the lower-half of the face and a murderous glint shone fiercely in his eyes. "Yeah it's me, the Demon of the Mist."

The whole team stood unmoving as the assassin went to retrieve the large blade that was protruding from a tree behind them. Hinata was the first to recover from the team's temporary paralysis as she threw a kunai at the former Mist nin. Zabuza evaded the dagger with ease as he returned to his original place about a few meters away from the Konoha shinobi.

"Okay," muttered Kakashi, "Didn't really think that they'd send someone like you, but that doesn't matter." Their sensei exhaled before pulling up his forehead protector, revealing a crimson red eye with a black pupil surrounded by three tomoe.

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock and anger as he saw what their sensei had kept from them. _I-It couldn't be! He's not related to me at all. It's impossible! __**He**__ couldn't have missed one… It's impossible! No! No!_ The young Uchiha repeated in his mind like a mantra as he glared at the swordsman. His fists balled up in anger, remembering his sole duty in life… well that and repopulating the his clan.

"Let's take this some place else, it has nothing to do with my team." Kakashi stepped forward, addressing the killer. Zabuza scoffed in response as his grip tightened on the hilt of his weapon. The genin each pulled out a kunai and surrounded Tazuna.

"My mission is to take down the bridge-builder; I could care less about his bodyguards." Kakashi brought his hands up and they flew through a series of well-practice hand signs as chakra started building-up and swirling around it. This time, it was Hinata's turn to look at her sensei in awe. _There's so much chakra, I don't even need the Byakugan to see it!_

_It's suffocating!_ Sasuke thought to himself as his grip on the kunai tightened. His eyes shifted back and forth from their sensei and their opponent. _There's so much tension in the air. And so much chakra; each jounin with the intent to kill the other. If it keeps on going like this, I'll go insane._

"Sasuke," the silver-haired jounin's voice breaking through the dark-haired genin's reverie, noticing his pupil's terror as the scene unfolded before him. "Don't worry, I won't let my comrades die, just focus on protecting Tazuna." Sasuke nodded numbly as he resumed his stance. He heard a small voice to his right whisper _Byakugan_ and Sasuke knew that it meant that Hinata was not going to back down either.

"Heh, like that would help." Zabuza suddenly said appearing behind the Hyuuga and the Uchiha and in front of Tazuna. Their sensei's eyes widened. With one deft motion of his sword, Zabuza tried to aim for his target. However, the genin and the bridge builder jumped out of the way in time for Kakashi to come in and block Zabuza's attack.

With the fog obscuring their view, the genin could only see part of the fight. They noticed that Kakashi had a kunai in Zabuza's body. But no blood was flowing from the open wound, instead, clear drops of water glided down Kakashi's dagger and onto the soil. The water clone in front of the silver-haired jounin burst just as Zabuza appeared behind him and cut their sensei in half.

Zabuza's eyes widened in realization that the real Kakashi had disappeared and left a water clone in his place, he growled and his eyes scanned his surroundings for any sign of the silver-haired jounin. The assassin felt cold metal touch his neck as a voice said, "Don't move. This is the end."

The assassin chuckled, "You think that this is the end? I see you copied my technique. However, I am not that easy to defeat!" He dissipated into water as the real Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and aimed a swipe at his head. The Konoha jounin ducked and the sword missed and landed embedded into the ground. The swordsman switched his grip on the hilt of his blade and brought his leg up to kick Kakashi away. He abruptly reached for his blade and moved to pull it out of the ground but found his sword stuck in the ground. "What?!"

"Wood Release: Vine Strangle Jutsu (**A/N: **yeah… I had to make this up because I couldn't find a ninjutsu that fit this…)!" Sasuke looked to his right and saw the female Hyuuga's hands up in a handsign. _Amazing_. His gaze returned to the battle scene as he saw Zabuza's sword being enveloped in vines that had surfaced from the ground. However, a few vines were not enough to stop the assassin as his jerked his weapon out of the ground with more force and ran in the direction that Kakashi had supposedly landed.

As Zabuza was still searching for the Leaf jounin, Kakashi took this chance to congratulate the Hyuuga on the perfection of her latest jutsu. "Good job, Hinata, your new jutsu worked well, except you could've made the vines a lot stronger." The silver-haired man's eyes were curved up into a smile as their female teammate smiled shyly back at him.

"T-Thank you." Suddenly, Zabuza appeared behind him and effortlessly trapped their sensei in a water dungeon.

"So this is where you went." The assassin smirked. Hinata reactivated her Byakugan, fell into her Jyuken stance, and attempted to close off the chakra points on Zabuza's hand. Her attack was futile and she was thrown back into Sasuke's arms.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto, screamed, distraught. He grit his teeth in anger as his hand formed an all too familiar hand seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" the blonde-haired ninja declared as copies of himself appeared. He charged at the assassin, but newly appeared water clones stopped Naruto's attacks.

"U-Uchiha-san," Hinata said, standing up, "We n-need to free Kakashi-sensei, and I have a p-plan." Sasuke nodded his head and listened attentively. "Maybe if all th-three of us attacked at once, we c-could somehow g-get Zabuza to release his h-hold on the Water Prison." The Uchiha nodded again before heading into the battle zone, with Hinata running in shortly after.

Sasuke through a brigade of kunai at the water clone, destroying it. His white-eyed teammate threw a few shuriken at the assassin, but he evaded all of them. Naruto flew back, reached into his backpack and tossed something to Sasuke, who caught it effortlessly. He opened the shruiken before leaping up in the air.

"Wind Demon Shuriken, Shadow Windmill!" Sasuke yelled as he threw the large shuriken at Zabuza who jumped up, evading it completelty. But then a poof was heard as Naruto released the transformation and threw a kunai at the assassin's hand that was holding their sensei prisoner. The hand moved out of the way quickly, as to not get hurt, and released the trapped jounin in the process.

"Great teamwork, Naruto, Sasuke, I'll take care of the rest." Said the silver-haired jounin as he and Zabuza ran towards the lake.

"That was a-amazing," came a voice from behind Sasuke. The Uchiha turned around and saw Hinata's smiling face. The dark-haired genin felt his face heat up as he lowered his head, as to not let his blush be seen.

"It wasn't anything," he said modestly. Hinata just nodded. Sasuke nearly bit his tongue when he felt a hard slap on his back. The impact still vibrating his body, Sasuke asked shakily, "What was that for, baka?" Naruto just smiled at the raven-haired shinobi as he gave him another hard pat on the back.

"Good job! We pulled it off! Did you see the look on Zabuxa's face when I threw the kunai?! It was priceless! Now let's go watch Kakashi-sensei fight!" When the three genin, along with Tazuna, Kakashi was already releasing Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique on the assassin. The genin pulled Tazuna into a tree as the waterfall hit Zabuza, knocking him into a tree. As the water drained away. Kakashi walked towards the fallen shinobi, only to find sebon needles in the missing nin's neck.

"I'll take care of him." A figure voiced from the tree above. Kakashi looked up to see a figure in semi-traditional clothing and a white clay mask with a few paint strokes obscuring the face.

"Okay," Kakashi said, "I'll leave him to you." The figure jumped down and carried the assassin away. The jounin felt his limbs grow limp as he fell to the ground, the last thing that he heard was a couple of worried "Kakashi-sensei!"s before falling into unconciousness.

**End of Chapter 3**

**A/N:** Working on next chapters blahblahblah.

**Vexitoire**


	4. Chakra, Trees, and Herbs, oh my!

**Updated: 5/31/2012**

**Teamwork, the Answer is Teamwork!**

**Chapter 4: Chakra, Trees, and Herbs, oh my!**

"Wake up!" screamed a loud voice that jolted Hinata awake. She opened her eyes to see cerulean orbs staring back at her. A light pink blush painted her face, as noticed how close they were to each other. "Yay!" Naruto cheered, jumping up and away from his female teammate. "You're awake! Kakashi-sensei wants us to start training in a forest nearby," the blonde's smile widened at the thought, "Yet another chance to show the world of my skills and that I'm better than that Sasuke-teme!"

"Che," scoffed the raven-haired ninja that was leaning on a wall adjacent to Hinata's futon. "You know that I am better than you."

She was confused, what were they doing in her room? Didn't they have their own…well, technically, Naruto and Sasuke had to share a room while Hinata and Kakashi had their own rooms. Anyway…

"Yeah RIGHT!" Naruto turned around to face Sasuke as they glared at each other. Hinata could feel the air around them grow uncomfortable as lightning was seen, flashing from one shinobi's eyes to the others. Hinata giggled softly at the "action" that was unfolding before her eyes as she retrieved a fresh change of clothes from her pack and headed, unnoticed by her teammates, to the nearest bathroom.

When Hinata emerged afterwards, in a new change of cargo pants, a loose white shirt with ¾ sleeves, and her signature bulky jacket. She found her teammates waiting outside of the lavatory, waiting for her. But before Hinata could say or do anything, the rivals each grabbed one of her arms and dragged her to a discreet location in the forest nearby Tazuna's abode.

When Team 7 reached the designated location, they found Kakashi sitting on a nearby rock, reading, and his crutches leaning on the other side of the rock. "Yo!" Kakashi exclaimed cheerfully when he noticed the trio standing before him. He lazily pointed random trees before him. "Your task today is to master chakra control. You will climb the trees by applying chakra to your feet. You will also use a kunai to mark how far you get. You will not be able to go home until you practice and perfect this technique. I will only be here for a couple of hours, do your best to impress me."

Naruto jumped up, ecstatic. He had his kunai in hand as he ran towards a tree on the other side of the clearing, building up acceleration. As soon as his foot came in contact with the bark of the tree, he was repelled backwards. He let out a cry of pain as he landed head first into soil, a few meters away from the tree. Two heads looked at the large imprint the blonde had left on the tree. Apparently, there was a limit to the amount off chakra one could apply to their feet.

Sasuke thought to himself for a while before charging at a tree a few meters away from his rival's. He started up the tree about ten steps before he could feel his hold slipping. He marked the tree before falling and landing softly on the ground. He heard soft footsteps coming from behind him and turned around. He saw Hinata there, slowly climbing the tree. Fifteen steps slowly became twenty, then thirty, before the pale-eyed kunoichi's footing slipped and she hastily marked the tree before her body started descending and nearing the ground.

Sasuke moved fast, and soon afterwards he had found that he had caught the Hyuuga in his arms and a pale red swept across both their fast, of course, Hinata's blush was darker than Sasuke's.

Hinata was the first to recollect her thoughts and speak. "T-Thanks Uchiha-san." She stammered, still a bit disoriented from what had just happened. Sasuke set the pale-eyed kounoichi down on the ground before continuing to train.

Sasuke sat on the ground, completely worn out. He gazed upon the tree that he had been penting his frustration on. Up and down the side of the trunk were long slashes that went higher every time. His gazed wandered over to his blonde teammate's tree, the marks were getting higher, almost on par with his own. He struggled to get up, unwilling to lose to the dobe. When he stood up, his gaze had left the blonde's tree and was looking at Hinata's. The marks were widely space, getting higher every time, the last one, being at the top, where her kunai was abandoned and left embedded into the trunk.

At first, it was an unspoken competition between all three of them, or so Naruto and Sasuke thought. But then the boys noticed how Hinata was improving at a much greater rate then they were and immediately, the competition only contained two competitors, the lone Uchiha and the annoying blonde.

The Hyuuga was nearby, somewhere, though she wasn't training. Sasuke scowled, she decided that _pick medicinal herbs_ were more worth her time than training, pathetic. Sasuke diverted his attention towards the task on hand…

That was until he heard Naruto whispering to Hinata. Sasuke stared at the interaction between the two, but said nothing. Finally, the blonde walked away from their female teammate, after yelling 'thanks,' and started climbing the tree again. However, this time, Naruto's height doubled in length before he stopped. The Uchiha stood staring with his eye's wide. What had just happened?

Sasuke hesitantly walked towards his teammate, knowing that what his is about to do is going to be a BIG, HUGE blow to his manly pride…

"What… did… you… ask… Hinata, exactly?" He asked slowly. Naruto looked at him puzzled, before bursting out into a fit of laughter.

"What's so funny…?" asked the Uchiha. The blonde continued laughing, wheezing, even.

"You don't get it? It's so easy!" Sasuke emitted a low growl from his throat and hit his teammate upside the head.

"Baka," he hissed. "You, yourself, were not doing very well just a few minutes before. Che, whatever, I'll go ask Hinata or figure it out for myself." Sasuke stalked away from Naruto, in search of said Hyuuga. He found her in a patch of tall green plants, selecting a few and putting them into a small cloth bag.

"Hinata," he started, getting the Hyuuga's attention. With her full attention on him, Sasuke found the air suffocating. It was hard to breathe and think. There was a long pause, a long pregnant pause, a long pregnant _unsettling_ pause, a—you get my point. There was a long pause, period.

"U-Uchiha-san, was there something you wanted?" Hinata asked the unmoving boy, wanting to get back to collecting herbs. Sasuke was looking at her, she knew that much; that meant he wanted something. But the damn boy just wouldn't talk! "If you d-don't mind, I'd let to get b-back to what I was doing before. She grabbed the jar of medicinal cream that was next to her feet, and stood up, dusting her clothes off and was planning to walk to a different site to collect herbs. Because the Uchiha's presence was a bit _annoying_ on her part.

Sasuke didn't know what caused his to do so, but his hand shot out to garb her arm before he could do anything to stop himself. The sudden jerk of Hinata's body caused her grip on the jar in her hand loosen. The jar fell to the ground, landing on a rock with an ear-splitting crack. Hinata turned around to see Sasuke again, before kneeling down to collect the broken pieces of glass, thank Kami-sama, that Hyuuga female hadn't filled the jar with anything of any sort yet. An un-Hinata-like scowl appeared on her face. Why was he so persistent in her being here to talk to him, **if he wasn't talking**? He had just cost her a perfectly good jar!

"U-Um," Sasuke started again, trying to find the right words, ignoring the fact that he had just _broken_ one of Hinata's jars. He saw her wince as her hand came in contact with a sharp edge of a piece of glass. Moving fast, Sasuke wrapped his hand around hers, applying pressure to prevent anymore blood loss while using his other hand to collect the rest of the pieces of broken glass.

When the current situation dawned on them , they both blushed and Hinata bandaged her hand while the Uchiha waited for her to finish.

"Uh… thanks," she said, smiling up at him. He felt his face heat up as he asked her the question that he had originally came to ask her about.

"W-What is the t-trick to… uh… mastering t-that… tree climbing exercise?" Hinata responded casually, Sasuke nodded once in a while.

"Oh," he said once she had finished talking, "No wonder." Hinata stood up, followed by Sasuke.

"N-Now if you don't mind, I would like to get back to collecting herbs," with that, Hinata walked away, a slight blush on her face, that went unnoticed by Sasuke, as she looked at her bandaged hand.

**End of Chapter 4**

**A/N: **Blah, nothing much to change here; really short chapter.

The next chapter will be a big _pain_, but then it's only about 2 chapters till new material, yesh.

**Vexitoire**


	5. Zombies Do Exist

**Updated: 7/18/2013**

**A/N: I'm back? Or at least, I'm on a short SasuHina writing spree. Also I apologize in advanced if it seems like there is a sudden change in writing style. I am older than when I began writing this story, haha.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

**Teamwork, the Answer is Teamwork!**

**Chapter 5: Zombies Do Exist**

"Kakashi," the bridge builder started one night, while the group had their dinner. "Why did you choose to stick with me after you found out that there was an assassin on my tail? This mission could endanger your lives."

"To abandon one's duty is not courageous, and below courageous, there is nothing. Those were the First Hokage's words." Kakashi responded. The young Hyuuga girl smiled behind her bowl. She agreed with her sensei's words and found his views to be very honorable. A calm silence enveloped the table, with occasional noises of wooden chopsticks coming in contact with ceramic bowls.

As the meal ended, Hinata stood up to help Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, clean up the table. Though she protested, the kind Hyuuga persisted. She and her team were guests, after all. Everyone was getting ready to head off to their respective nightly plans when a small voice spoke up from the dinner table. "Why are you trying so hard against Gatou?" All eyes turned to look at Inari, Tazuna's grandson.

He immediately followed with "It's pointless," not allowing for anyone to respond to his first question. The young boy's eyes grew misty and his hands moved to his face to wipe away the tears that were beginning to form. Hinata set the plates in her hands into the sink before walking over to the boy. She coaxed him into her arms in a very sisterly manner, enveloping Inari in a very caring hug.

"Shut up." The Hyuuga turned to look at her blonde teammate, his eyes looked pointedly at the young boy, though his words were sharper. "We're not like you." She frowned slightly and tried to gesture for Naruto to apologize for his words though he did not notice. Inari cried harder in her arms.

"How can someone like you, who is so carefree, possibly understand anything about me or this country?" he demanded.

"You're such a weakling! Crying so freely! An idiot like you should just keep on crying." The blonde shinobi growled out. He scoffed and turned away from the table. "I'm going to train." With that he stood up from the table and walked out.

Hinata pursed her lips in disappointment at her teammate's actions. There was no need to act that way. Thoughts fly around in her head as she tried to figure out what she is going to say to him once he's finished with this 'training'. At that moment, Inari pulled himself away from Hinata's arms and dashed out of the room, no indication to where he was headed.

"What was that about?" Kakashi asked, openly voicing the question that was on all of the shinobis' minds. Tazuna remained silent, though Tsunami answered instead.

"There was a traveling fisherman that had came by here a few years ago; his name was Kaiza. Though, he ended up settling in the village after meeting Inari." The woman smiled somberly to herself as she looked down at the hand towel that she had grabbed to wipe the table with. "You see, Inari's father died when he was still young. As a result, Inari did not know his father very well. When Kaiza showed up and saved Inari from drowning one day, he kind of filled that role for Inari.

"He became really close to our family and was accepted by the village too." Tsunami looked up at a picture frame that hung on the wall. It contained a picture of Tsunami, Tazuna, Inari and a fourth figure, but the fourth figure's head had been ripped out of the picture. Hinata assumed that the last person in that picture had been Kaiza.

There was a short silence as Tsunami wringed her hands tighter around the towel in her hand. It was not long before soft sobs shook her body. "After helping to prevent a major flood," Tazuna stepped in and continued the story for his distraught daughter. "He even became known as the hero of the city. Though our happiness was short-lived as he was accused of being a terrorist against the Gatou Corporation and was publicly executed by Gatou's men. The day that Kaiza's spirit left the world so did the spirit of this village. Though no one was as crushed by Kaiza's sudden death as Inari." Tazuna sighed, picking up his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "It was not until I had started this bridge project that the inhabitants of our little village have started getting their courage back. We only hope that we can continue to build up everyone's spirits."

* * *

Inari sat by himself near the edge of the water, his feet making ripples in the water. He liked being here; it calmed him. At the same time, the memories of Kaiza were also the strongest here. He took out a small picture from his pocket and clutched it close to him, reminiscing over all the good memories. He heard soft footsteps coming closer and he turned around to see no other than the teacher of the team of genin from Konoha, Kakashi, approaching him.

"Inari, can I talk to you?" the silver-haired ninja asks. When the young boy did not respond, Kakashi took his silence as a "yes."

"Naruto is not normally like this." He started as he leaned down and sat next to Inari. "I apologize, for his behavior tonight. I hope his words didn't hurt you much."

"It's pointless." Inari repeated.

"What?"

"It's pointless to stand up to Gatou and his men." His grip tightened on the picture in his hands. "Kaiza had stood up to him and now look at where he is! He's gone!" Tears started to form at the corners of his eyes. Though he stopped and looked up at Kakashi when he felt him put his hand on his shoulder.

"You see, Naruto grew up without knowing either of his parents and without friends to." The tone of Kakashi's voice was somewhat regretful. "In fact, many of our village regarded him as a monster and were afraid to interact with him.

"Naruto is willing to risk his life in order to gain the recognition of the citizens of Konoha. He wants to be respected and treated like a real person." Kakashi sighed. "He doesn't really find any of this to be 'pointless'.

"He's probably sick and tired of crying."

* * *

"Where is he?" Sasuke asked as he stepped into the dining room the next morning. Hinata, Tazuna, and Kakashi were already seated at the table, half-eaten bowls of rice porridge in front of them. He walked over and took a seat next to Hinata. "Where is Naruto?"

"He's still asleep," said the Hyuuga heiress, spooning some of the porridge into her mouth, careful not to burn her tongue. "He came back late last nice after his training."

_Che._ Sasuke thought to himself. _Typical_.

Sensei had told them that they needed to get up early for their trip to the bridge next morning. Not surprising, the least dependable member of their squad was unable to complete this simple task.

"Tsunami-san!" Kakashi The woman walked out of the kitchen, ladle in hand. "I'm leaving Naruto in your hands. He is probably tired. He should have the day off."

"Sure," she smiled before walking back into the kitchen. With that, the sensei turned back to his students.

"Wait," started Sasuke, "but I haven't even had anything to eat yet-" before he was able to finish his sentence, his female teammate stuck a spoonful of warm rice porridge into his mouth. He ungracefully choked on the spoon before turning and glaring at the smiling heiress.

"If you get a new bowl, it'll be too hot." She stated, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Before the Uchiha was able to respond to her statement, she stuck another spoonful into his mouth. He grabbed the bowl from his hands and downed the rest of its contents in one gulp, ignoring the heat as it went down his throat. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and mumbled something about being able to feed himself as his face colored slightly.

Kakashi stood up, completely disregarding the unusual display that just transpired between his two students. "We need to get going. You sure you have everything? Kunai, shruiken, _everything_?" The two of them nodded in response. "I have a bad feeling about today." And with that, the four of them set out for the bridge.

* * *

"Still hurt?" came then statically, sarcastic voice from the radio. The man scowled. "I'm paying you a lot and I haven't quite gotten my money's worth."

"I don't care."

"I want you up and going or I'll-" His sentence was cut short as the small radio was crushed to pieces; it's destroyed pieces falling into the water. He looked up from the small boat under the unfinished bridge.

"Are you ready, the man asked a masked-figure. "We need to get going."

"I'm ready."

* * *

"AHH!" came a distressed cry. Naruto jumped up, ripping the covers from his body. He scrambled around the room and wildly threw things out of his pack as he tried to find the right attire and equipment. "DID I OVERSLEEP AGAIN?!" The blonde shinobi ran into the kitchen, nearly colliding into Tsunami. "Where are they?" he asked, eager to return to his team.

"Naruto, you needn't worry," she smiled. "Kakashi wants you to rest, you have been given the day off."

The blonde frowned before running back into his room. "I knew that they would ditch me." He pulled on his headband and rushed out of the door. Taking to the trees, Naruto was angered that no one had bothered to wake him up. His movements came to an abrupt halt as a distinct—and familiar—metallic scent filled the air. He looked down from the branch that he was standing on to see a dead boar on the ground, bathed in its own blood.

* * *

"What is this?" Tazuna looked around at the remains of what used to be a very orderly construction site. Dread sinked into his body like iron in water as horror and shock clouded his face. The air around them reeked of blood. Sasuke crinkled his nose and moved his hands up to cover his nose.

The workers were scattered around the unfinished bridge. Some were unmoving while others were groaning in pain; blood was everywhere.

_What could've caused this?_

* * *

"Inari!" Tsunami called out to her son. Her hands moved to grab the vegetables that she was prepping for dinner. "I am in need of assistance!"

"I'll be right there!" Inari stood to his feet and walked towards the kitchen.

Two figures stalked into the house through the open doors, hands placed very reassuringly on the blades strapped to their waists.

* * *

As the leaf shinobi looked around their surroundings, trying to assess the damage, a thick mist set over the bridge, decreasing visibility. Instinctively, Kakashi and his students gathered around Tazuna, kunai at the ready.

"Be careful," warned Kakashi. "Keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious activity. Remember, our mission is to protect Tazuna."

"_Byakugan_." Hinata brought her hands together in a very familiar hand signal. She gasped and fumbled with the kunai in her hands. "No… It couldn't be." She whispered, "He was killed!"

"How nice of you to join us, Kakashi," came the same eerie voice that they had heard days ago on their journey to the Mist. "I am eager to begin the second round of our fight. I am terribly sorry for keeping you waiting. I see you still have those brats with you." As he spoke, several water clones appeared around the group. The two genin looked towards their sensei, awaiting their signal. He nodded his head slightly and they attack. A few kunai and a flick of the wrist, the water clones are destroyed.

"Boy, you've improved, I'm impressed." Rasped Zabuza, the tone of his voice hinted at a smile. "Haku, you may have a rival now." A masked figure materialized before the group.

"Isn't he…" Tazuna trailed off, looking towards Kakashi for a confirmation.

"He obviously has his allegiances elsewhere." Sasuke scowled at Kakashi's words and grips his kunai tighter.

"I'll fight him," growled the Uchiha but before he is able to attack, the masked figure rushed towards him.

* * *

"Kaa-chan?" Inari stepped into the kitchen and immediately froze. There was two samurai, katanas strapped at their waists; his mother crouched on the floor. The two men smirked at the young boy, relishing in his fear.

"No! Inari! Run away! Get away from here!" his mother yelled, the hands over her head start signaling for him to try and get away. One of the samurai immediately hit her on the back of the head with the butt of his sword; her body fell to the ground. Inari yelled and rushed forward towards his mother, but one of the samurai grabbed his arm and held him back.

"Should we take him, too?" He asked his companion, looking down at the struggling boy. "There's really no use in struggling," he sneered at Inari, "I'm not going to let you go."

"We only need one hostage." _Hostage?_ Inari asked himself and stopped moving. The first man just smiled down at him and drew his katana.

"Wait!" Inari's mother spoke up, earning her the attention of the two intruders. "If you kill that child, I'll bite my tongue off and kill myself!" The second samurai glared at her. "You want a hostage, right?"

The man turned and looked at Inari, debating his options before he motioned to the other samurai and they both seethe their katana. "Thank your mom, kid." Inari slumped to the ground; his shoulders hang in regret and despair. The two men tie up his mother forcefully and led her out of the house.

_Kaa-chan, I'm sorry. So sorry…_

_I'm weak._

_I couldn't protect you._

Wet droplets fell to the ground in a small rain. Inari willed himself to stop his tears but could not. The face of Naruto came into his mind. _You're such a weakling! Crying so freely! An idiot like you should just keep on crying__!_ The image of their sensei was next. _He's probably sick and tired of crying._

* * *

"I already have two advantages over you, Sasuke," came the muffled voice of the assassin as Sasuke's kunai clashed again and again with the sebon. "First, is that water on the ground. Second, I have occupied one of your hands." The figure kicked a nearby puddle and the water splashed into the air while his free hand formed a hand sign, transforming the water into needles, flying downward, aimed at Sasuke. _With one hand?_

_Chakra, must concentrate chakra into my legs!_ Haku jumped out of the way as the needles come in contact with his opponent. As the smoke clears, the clearing was empty; the Uchiha was gone. He glanced around before looking up to see the raven-haired shinobi in the air. Sasuke threw shruiken after shruiken, missing his target each time as the masked figure deftly evaded them.

"You're slow," the Uchiha appeared behind Haku. "Looks like now you'll only be able to run from my attacks." Haku immediately swiveled around to block Sasuke's hand with his but, instead of the intended impact, the Uchiha threw the kunai in his hand. The masked assassin evades it by crouching close to the ground and Sasuke took the chance to kick Haku, sending him flying backwards and landing at Zabuza's feet.

_He lost in speed?_ Zabuza thought, trying to retain a look of surprised from appearing on his face.

"Apparently, I have an upper hand now." Sasuke smirked.

"I can't have you understanding my team by calling them 'brats'," came Kakashi's voice. "Sasuke is first in his class in Konoha. Hinata is one of the brightest of the village and the heir to a powerful clan. And the other one is the loudest, number-one hyperactive ninja of the village."

* * *

Inari stood up, tears gone from his eyes. "Wait!" he shouted after the samurai, grabbing their attention. One of the samurai scowled before charging at the young boy, katana drawn. Suddenly, Inari and Tsunami's body turned into logs. The samurai turn around to see Naruto standing there, with both Inari and Tsunami in his arms. "Kawarimi no Jutsu?" One samurai stated, confused. Naruto grinned.

"Sorry for being late. I had a feeling that you'd be here." The samurai scowled and ran after the blonde shinobi, but just as they come close enough, two of Naruto's kage bushin appeared and kicked them in the head, effectively knocking them out.

"I'm sorry for calling you a weakling." Naruto said after tying the two samurai up. Unable to control himself, the young boy burst into tears again. "It's okay to cry… When you are happy!" Naruto smiled at the younger boy. "Can I count on you to take care of everything from here?" Inari nodded and wiped tears from his eyes. "Okay. Great! I need to get to the bridge!"

* * *

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. His hands tightened and chakra began to swirl around his body in a very frightening manner.

"Haku, do you realize that at this rate we will be defeated?" came the annoyed growl from across the battlefield.

"Yes." His hands come together. "Secret Jutsu: Demonic Ice Mirrors!" The bridge builder and his protectors watch, eyes wide as water rose up to the ground to form ice mirrors around Sasuke. Deftly, Haku entered a mirror and his image was instantly reflected in each of the ice mirrors. Their sensei made a move to help his student but Zabuza stepped in front of him to block his path.

"Your opponent is me."

"Against that jutsu, Sasuke is doomed."

Inside the ice mirror Haku stated, "I'll show you my real speed." He threw a sebon at Sasuke with neck-breaking speed; the Uchiha is unable to dodge it in time and the metal weapon grazed his shirt, no wound. Another sebon and then another. At this point, Sasuke is not longer able to track his opponent's movements. The Uchiha collapsed to the ground; small wounds littered his body. Just as Haku appeared out of one of his mirrors, a shruiken hits his mask and the impact causes him to fall to the ground. Haku slowly got up to his feet just as an explosion occurred within the Ice Mirrors. He turned around to see the Hyuuga there, kunai drawn and Byakugan activated.

"What are you doing Hinata?" Sasuke hissed. "You left Tazuna unguarded."

"Kage bushin. I think you need my help." Their opponent melted back into the mirrors and the barrage of sebon begin again. The Hyuuga stands over her fallen teammate and settled into her Jyuuken stance. "Hakkeshō Kaiten! (Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin)" She spins around rapidly as chakra is released from her chakra points. Though Hinata was able to block a majority of the projectiles, her technique was not yet perfected and one sebon is able to cut through her defenses and hit her shoulder. The young Hyuuga grimaced and pulled out the needle.

Sasuke slowly rose to his feet. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)" His hands go through familiar hand signs before a giant ball of fire is emitted from his mouth in an attempt to melt the mirrors, but failing.

In an instant, their opponent attacked. Hinata, still worn out from her last Kaiten, was unable to move, leaving both of them vulnerable to the attack. An idea pops into the Uchiha's head as he performed another Gōkakyū, but not aiming it at the mirrors. Instead, the fireball hit its intended target and wounded Haku. As Sasuke observed his opponent, he began to realize that he was able to track Haku's movements. _Is he getting slower?_

Sasuke was distracted; something was happening to his eyes; they were swirling into a deep, blood red. He heard a gasp from next to him and felt a body move to shield him.

* * *

Red. The color of blood forever etched into his mind. Sasuke looked at his hands, crimson blood splattered on his palms. It wasn't his blood. But it wasn't Haku's either. He looked downward and saw Hinata's unmoving figure, sebon embedded into many parts of her body; blood seeped from her fresh wounds and created a puddle of blood near his feet.

Sasuke stood unmoving before something snapped and his knees hit the floor. "Why?" His voice was at once confused but also held undertones of pain and regret. The Hyuuga heiress looked up at him; a small smile graced her lips.

"Kakashi-sensei said, 'People who don't follow the rules are trash, but people who don't take care of their friends are worse than trash.'" Instinctively, his hand reached over to hold her's. "You are my friend Sasuke-kun, there is no way I could let you die, not while your goal is a lot more important than mine…" As she trailed off, it was more than obvious to him that she had lost conciousness; her hand became limp fell out of his grasp.

It was at this moment that his third and final teammate had reached the bridge, just in time to witness the Hyuuga's sacrifice. Ignoring Kakashi and Tazuna's protests, he walked into the mirrors.

"Sasuke," Naruto looked down at his two injured teammates, his words terse and clipped. "You take Hinata to Tazuna, her clones have dispersed. I'll take care of Haku." Sasuke grimaced; just because Naruto was the only one unharmed did not give him the authority to make such demands of him.

"No, you take Hinata." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. He was concerned for Hinata's welfare but his first priority at the moment was to make that masked bastard pay for what he had done to his teammate.

"I'm obviously in a better condition than you are. Go." Sasuke bristled at his words but, seeing that there was no point left in fighting, he left the battlefield.

"That kunoichi is one that deserved respect." He heard Haku's voice trailed after him as he left.

As soon as Sasuke left with their fallen teammate, red charka started to swirl uncontrollably around the remaining blonde shinobi. Sebon rained down upon him from the mirrors; Naruto deflected them with ease. With incredible speed, the kyuubi-vessel ran towards a mirror. His fist collided with Haku, throwing his opponent out from his reflective shelter and effectively shattering the mirror.

"I can't defeat him." Whispered Haku's collapsed form. His mask fell from his face just as Naruto neared, face wild and eyes red with hate and the intent to kill his opponent. But when he saw Haku's face, he halted in his steps, unable to bring himself to kill his opponent. "Do it. I have no reason to live once you have shown me how weak I am. Kill me, please. Now that I serve no use to Zabuza, I do not wish to live. He doesn't need me. I fulfilled my part."

"Maybe if we had met under different circumstances, we could have been friends." Naruto said, the chakra around his body receding back into his body. He fell onto his knees next to his opponent. He looked down at Haku, the blank look in the fallen shinobi's eyes were haunting. "Maybe-"

But before Naruto is able to finish his sentence, Haku disappeared from his spot on the ground. He materialized between Zabuza and their sensei. Blood dripped down from his body as he received an impact meant for swordsman. The ice mirrors shattered.

The mist cleared and Naruto was able to see, clearly, what had happened. Their sensei had been battling Zabuza and, at the last moment, Haku stepped in and took a life-threating blow meant for Zabuza. Upon impact, Haku was lost. Kakashi gently laid the fallen assassin onto the ground. After the adrenaline starts to wear off, Naruto whipped his head around and ran towards his teammates.

"Sasuke, how is she doing?" The Uchiha was kneeling next to her lifeless body and doesn't answer. In the distance, Kakashi was still head-to-head with his opponent. But as time passed, Zabuza was not able to keep up any more and once again finds himself at the mercy of the Konoha jonin. As Kakashi was about to deal a fatal blow, a group of men appear. The shinobi turned and see Gatou and his men.

"Zabuza, you are… no longer needed."

"I am sorry, but our battle ends here," Zabuza told his opponent as he collapses onto the ground, chakra levels at an all time low, "I now have no reason to fight you." At that moment, Gatou stalked towards Haku and delivered a swipe kick to his lifeless body.

"You bastard!" yelled Naruto. "Stop doing that! Do you have no feel-"

"It's no use," Zabuza's voice swiftly interrupted the enraged blonde shinobi. He is already dead."

"How could you just use him like that?" Naruto demanded, enraged "He risked his life for you and you feel no remorse at all?"

"It's true that I used Haku just as Gatou used me. I only wanted Haku's abilities not him."

"I don't understand how you can act so cold. Haku sacrificed his life for you! He can't die as a tool. It's just too painful."

"I know what Haku did for me." The assassin sighed, as if years and years of regret had overtaken his body. "I thank you for being my final opponents. Now, may I borrow your kunai?" Hesitant, Naruto held out a kunai and Zabuza took the metal weapon in his teeth. Without much preamble, the assassin charged toward Gatou's group of men, whipping his head to and fro until he finally reached Gatou. "Unfortunately, I won't be joining Haku in death. Both you and I are going to HELL!" With a well aimed slash, Gatou's body fell limply onto the ground.

His body spent, Zabuza glanced at Haku's body and collapsed in the middle of Gatou's men. _Let me stay by your side. Thank you for everything. I'm sorry… This is goodbye… _

"What happened?" Hinata mumbled as she slowly regained consciousness. The first thing she saw was Sasuke's face hovering over her, his face relieved and grateful. Immediately she is grabbed into a hug and she winced, as her wounds are still fresh. She turned to look at Naruto, who loosened his grip and informed her about Haku's death.

Suddenly, Gatou's men interrupted the intenseness to declare that they want revenge. They rush, but are greeted by Inari and all the townsmen, who have stepped up to defend their town. Gatou's men retreat, like defeated dogs with their tails between their legs.

"Kakashi, I have a request…" all eyes turned to look at Zabuza.

"What is it?"

"I would like to see Haku's face." The silver-haired ninja complied and carried his limp body over to where Haku's body lied. "Thank you… Kakashi…" He slowly raised his arm to caress the side of Haku's face. "If I could, I'd like to go to the same place as you. Maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to see you again…"

Snow fell to the ground and Zabuza looked upward. _Are you crying Haku?_ _We've been together all this time, so it is only right that I stay with you now._

_Together… You will be able to go…_

_Zabuza…_

_May you rest in peace, Zabuza and Haku. Best wishes to you._

**2 Weeks Later**

Hinata looked at the two graves in front of her. Zabuza and Haku were great shinobi. She smiles wistfully and sets down a small cluster of flowers at each of the graves. _Maybe if we had met under different circumstances…_ The Hyuuga stood back up. A lot had happened since they embarked on this mission. Though now she was just glad that they had finished in one piece. Though recovery had been difficult, she was now completely healed and able to return to training soon.

It did not take long for the bridge to be completed. To their surprise, Tazuna names the bridge after their hyperactive teammate, so that one day the bridge will be known throughout the world. With the bridge finished, their stay in the village is over. When they leave, Tazuna, Tsunami, and Inari are present to send off Team 7. There are emotions galore as both Inari and Naruto tried their best not to become overwhelmed with tears. Once all the proper goodbyes were said, the Konoha nin set off, eager to return home.

"Soooo," Kakashi started. "That was an interesting mission… Encountered an S-class missing nin, participated in a fight to the death… at least we survived! We should do this often!" He smiled as he looked down at his genin; Naruto agreed enthusiastically while Hinata smiled brightly. Even their normally brooding Uchiha gave a small smile.

**End of Chapter 5**

**A/N: **Mist Mission Arc is over! The hardest rewrite/edit, for sure. It is now only about 2 more chapters until new, unread material…When I'll get there, is a mystery.

**Vexitoire**


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